What is the best shape trellis for Pea's and Beans? I bought 16x 8Ft bamboo canes today to construct something! the area im planting is quite small so i wana make as much use of the space as possible. thanks
andy

Hiya Nosebleed. My way is to stick 3 canes in a triangle about 18" apart and tie them together with wire about 5' up to make a wigwam. I sow three peas beside each cane and eventually keep the strongest one on each cane. I've also mixed peas with french or runner beans with no known problems. Broad beans I use two very robust stakes with string between them. BTW, you can grow spring onions (scallions) in the same line as broad beans and in the base of the wigwam you can grow a few lettuce if you want. PS Do you know that shop m,arrowfat peas the ones you have to soak for twelve hours have a high success rate for sprouting ig you forget to cook them. lol_________________Retired trouble-maker. twitters @walltoall and dreams of being promoted to Pedunculate Oaker.

ok i've decided to make a wire trellis along the length of the wall..not sure exactly how to go about it. i was thinking of running something along the top of the wall and run string off it to the ground where it will be secured. maybe just a length of string across the top tied between hooks..will runner beans follow/climb the string/twine?

Broad beans will practically stand up on their own. But if you give them a twist around falling twines once a week it helps them get themselves organized with relationship to the vertical. Exactly the same trick works for non bush tomatoes BTW. The beans only grow to about 5' over here Tomatoes easily top 8' with that system.

Peas and runner beans are what I call 'clamberers'. I frequently use hard plastic mesh hung on a wall with screw hooks (if I'm growing them on a wall). I've even used open trellis. But they will thrive far better out in the plots of your very organised garden using the tepee idea with the bamboos. That way they get loads of air and more sun than they would close to a wall.

All legumes love sunlight and do NOT much like shade. However, if you want to grow them on a wall anyway, they need some thing to twine around and by that I don't mean TWINE. Think honeysuckle, clematis. So something like chicken net or you could stick your bamboo canes alongside the wall at about 12" centres and see how they go. I still prefer the tepee system.

Why is no-one else responding to this thread? Are yiz all dug in for the Winter? Come out and fight with me will yiz? We all want nosebleed to have the best garden in Dublin sorry Leinster._________________Retired trouble-maker. twitters @walltoall and dreams of being promoted to Pedunculate Oaker.

LOL. thanks for that walltoall. I bought plant support Twine,Wall Hooks and 30m of Rope which i will drill and hang on the wall..hopefully running lines of twine to the ground at regular intervals will be enough support but if you think i might need mesh i will tie some twine across wires...i'll get cracking tomorrow and let you all know how it goes.

I can't believe anyone is actually out doing garden work in this cold ! You are amazing, nozebleed............. I just watch the birds from the warmth of indoors....and grumpily survey all the weeds that seemed to grow happily under a blanket of snow. Back to my knitting and a good book now......

in fairness it was too cold to be gardening..i could feel my fingers after 10 mins. so i will finish when it when the sun comes out. I did set up my heated propogator today! bought some seed compost...im going to start my tomato & pepper plants tomorrow! going with these guy's in the glass house this year!!

Hi! I think we covered this in some depth when yopu posted the thread about planning your plot - cettainly apropos runner beans and peas?

Both these crops rely for success on pre-planning. Prepare the ground you're going to use - I start mine as I dismantle the previous year's row - and follow the routine I wrote before.

It's your garden and you must do as you wish but both beans and peas crop on both sides of a row but certainly won't do that If you block one side of the row by placing it beside a wall. You'll halve your crop._________________A novice gardener on newly cultivated, stoney ground.

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